Okay, this is a big time chapter, and one I think you did a REALLY good job with. This addresses one of what I thought one of the big misses of Season 9 was - it seemed to be completely disconnected from the history of these characters, which is particularly weird since that history involves a LOT of hurt as a result of them failing to communicate with each other. You've effectively tied this back to their roots a lot more, and I think it works.

I was struck by your note that you made Jim more in the wrong here - maybe it's just because he's on so much firmer ground here than he was in canon, but I actually thought of this as relatively even-handed, particularly since their conclusion was not "someone needs to make up for something" and more "Jim is genuinely in crisis." (Again, this may be due to the fact that I think Jim's point about him being supportive of Pam's big swings in the past is a pretty sharp one, but also, I think his whole thing about wanting to do this FOR THEM is much stronger in a context where he at least accepts that he can't do it if Pam doesn't agree it's what's best.)

I guess also regardless of whether this fight puts him in the wrong or not, the fact that he recognizes the fact that he's hurting Pam and makes it his first priority to fix it at least puts him solidly in character, which is the main thing that's important to get right.

(I was struck by your inclusion of the Cathy incident on Jim's list of misdeeds - I never really interpreted any of that as being on Jim. What was your thought process there?)

Looking forward to seeing where you go with the leave plotline - feels like that has a lot of potential, although from my perspective the answer is "he's burned out with his current job" feels like a bit of a gimme answer.

The Nellie-Erin-Pete stuff is very funny, and that's a classic conference room meeting meltdown. Side note: I'd forgotten the twist of the Dunder Code being that Jim had totally forgotten he'd put it together, which makes it so much better.

Author's Response:

Appreciate the compliments!  They need to post the Dunder Code on YouTube because that's the best moment of the episode.

Yeah, it's meant to be even in terms of "who is right and who is wrong", but in terms of who is going about it the right way, it's Pam.  Jim's points are valid but his presentation is so intense that it immediately puts others on the defensive.  I've interacted with people who act this way and it's off-putting; it never gets their point across.  And yeah, some of the breakdown is burnout, but his reasoning does go deeper than that.

(As for Cathy, that's mostly inspired by the deleted scene where Darryl calls Jim with Pam and Andy in the room; they were discussing Val and what Jim/Tuna would advise Darryl to go about it.  That and, well, the whole situation skeeved him out and Stanley's comments didn't help.)

Nellie and Erin are still a joy to write, and while most of that's canon, I included the phone call to Andy.  It makes more sense rather than Nell being advised by Toby of all people, who acts like their in a relationship when they're not and it's just WHY.

Thanks for the review as always!